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Thinking about Hyperlinked Communities
“Somewhere along the line, we confused going to work with building a fort.” —David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto Effectively serving the whole community is something that I think about all the time as a frontline library worker. To me it’s about meeting all patrons, potential and current, where they are. I mean this in both a literal and figurative sense. In Chapter three of Library 2.0, Casey suggests that libraries find out where, in the community, people are getting their needs met. We can make our services available where people already are. In fact, it’s already being done with self-serve library kiosks in unexpected places. Could watching someone make use…
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Assignment X: Technology, Relevance, and the Missing Link…People
A theme I found myself exploring as I read about ideas related to Michael Stephens’s Hyperlinked Library concept, is connecting with people—the current library users as well as potential library users in the community. The library profession is naturally concerned with staying relevant. Hence, its emphasis on introducing the latest technologies. Yes, it’s important to integrate emergent technologies (see Buckland) and make these tools available to all people along with the instruction needed to use them. But, how can a library be relevant to people who might not feel any kind of connection to the institution which so earnestly aspires to make positive impacts on their lives? (see Casey &…
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My Introduction
Hello! I have honestly been trying to register for this course for several semesters—success! I’m excited and trepidatious about the semester because I will be stretching myself right out of my comfort zone. I will be confronting my fear of outside judgement as I think aloud, so to speak. I also have to confront my tendency to obsess over tiny details as I design this site and write the blog posts—that is if I ever want to accomplish anything in this class and in the other one I’m taking. I’m hoping that I will be able to take the knowledge and skills I will develop here with me into public…
